There is a big misconception that Wimax is a replacement of Wifi. Perhaps, this doc will clear many misconceptions about Wimax. Click on the wimax myth buster under the heading wimax related stuff. Wimax and Wifi are completely different technologies with different goals. While Wifi is designed for the LAN (Local Area Network), Wimax has been engineered for MAN (Metropolitan Area Network). More simply, Wifi is for indoor and Wimax is for outside coverage.
Although underlying physical layer technology is same for both the cases (OFDM). It’s the MAC (medium access control) that differentiates between the two. MAC is needed to coordinate transmission between many to one situation. Wimax Mac is connection oriented. A logical connection is first established before data can flow through. This guarantees a minimal quality of service (QOS). We will talk about Wimax QOS later n our discussion.
Wifi is connection less and more contentious with its CSMA (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) Mac. In this type of MAC, a competing subscriber station (SS) listens to the channel, and when the channel is free, request for the transmission. Quite a different stuff altogether!
Wifi is also limited in range. Owing to free 2.4 GHz ISM band it operates in, wifi energy in the air is restricted to only couple of 100 meters. Where as Wimax works in a licenses band and can go up to ten's of kilometers.
In my next blog, I will be talking about the bands of operation of Wimax and Wimax forum.
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